Jesus calls believers the salt of the earth, but we must maintain our salt or we will be lost.
Jesus calls believers the light of the world, and like a city on the hill, your light cannot be hidden. Let your light shine as a testament to God so that others may come to know him.
BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 5: Matthew 5:13-16
15a) Salt in the ancient world was mainly used for preserving food since refrigeration did not exist, and it was used to make food taste good. Salt is a necessity to the human body and its functions. It is essential for nerves and muscle function, as well as the regulation of fluids within our bodies. You will see animals lick salt because they need it, too. Salt also heals wounds. Its chemical composition, sodium chloride, forces liquid (and the bacteria in the liquid) out of the body, speeding healing. It has many uses outside of this. Great salt history HERE and HERE
b) There are many thoughts from Bible scholars about being the salt of the earth. Some think we are to preserve the world from evil, to enhance the flavor of the world, or to stop the decay in the world — to stop sin’s power to destroy our lives. Great reads HERE and HERE
16a) At its core, light illuminates. We cannot see anything without light. It opens our minds to what is there.
b) Christians are to illuminate or make visible Christ. Our good works are to shine for all to see. We are to be the light, the TRUTH, in a dark world. In Philippians 2:15, the apostle Paul says, “Believers, you are to shine as light in the world.” To be a beacon to bring others to the light.
17) We cannot bring God’s word to others and banish evil without living out God’s word. Our lives bring others to Christ, not our words. By being humble and showing mercy, as well as seeking God to be better every day, we will bring others to Christ.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 5: Matthew 5:13-16
I love this! I love the analogies, and I love the history! The best thing you and I can do for others is to be Christ-like. We flavor the earth with our actions and our words, we heal the earth, and we shine God’s truth everywhere we go.
Here’s a cool salt and light bible devotional I found!
End Notes BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 5: Matthew 5:13-16
Salt is precious, it preserves, and it adds flavor to the world. Christians do the same. Do not lose your saltiness, or you become useless to others. Salt also heals. Your actions and words can heal a broken soul.
Jesus is the ultimate light of the world (John 8:12 and John 9:5). We are now responsible for preventing decay and shining biblical truth in the world. This also means we are to get out in the world in order to shine.
Our light should be visible to others, like a city in the distance. We are to shine brightly for Jesus. The lampstand is intentionally placed there, as should our light be intentionally shined. Our good works will shine bright and bring others to Jesus. Let others see God in you.
God tells Noah to enter the ark with the animals for in seven days He will send rain for 40 days and nights. Noah obeys. Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened. All the animals came to him. Then the Lord shut them in and the waters came. Everything perished. After the rain stopped, the earth remained flooded for 150 days.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
13) Personal Question. My answer: God always has hope, even though He knows what will happen. He created man, knowing that one day He would destroy them. He gave man 120 years to repent, and still nothing but evil. God’s judgement is swift, it’s absolute, and you are powerless beneath it. No questions are raised for me.
14) Personal Question. My answer: God is always faithful to His word, and if we have faith in the Word, we have faith in God.
15) Personal Question. My answer: It’s an encouragement because it shows there is retribution for all the wrongs done in the world. It’s a warning that God can judge whenever He wants. It’s both for me, to follow His ways always. I know God will punish and destroy the wicked one day. I know He will judge. And I need to be as prepared as I can be for when He judges me.
16) Personal Question. My answer: It shows how every day could be your last and that you should live each life — treating others as if it is your last.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
I love the story of Noah. Here’s a guy of faith who is told to build a big boat and save his entire family by God. How awesome and scary is that! Yet, he does it without fail, without question, showing us what a walk with God truly is.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
Genesis 7:
God was in the ark and would be with Noah in the ark, so He called Noah to come into the ark with Him.
“Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, ‘Go into the ark,’ but ‘Come,”
In Genesis 6:20 God said the animals would come to Noah by migration.
Noah, the animals, and his family had to wait in the ark seven days for the rain to come. They had never seen rain up to this time. This was a real test of faith – to wait a week after more than 100 years of preparation.
The heavens containing the great waters that were above the firmament (Genesis 1:7) opened up. These waters formed the huge so-called blanket of water in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere since creation. Waters came up from under the earth, too.
The Number 40 in the Bible
Here we see the first use of the number 40 in the Bible. It has become associated with testing and purification, especially before entering into something new and significant.
Note that God shuts the door. God has the final say in judgement. God shuts people out.
God kept the door open until the last possible minute, but there came a time when the door had to shut. Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
88% describe a favored family.
70% attribute survival to a boat.
95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
67% record that animals are also saved.
57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
The water from the flood is collected in oceans today.
The Bible says that only the animals that had the breath of the spirit of life. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
God may have put some or many of these animals into a period of hibernation for this period, meaning that less food, space, and supervision was be needed.
God provides many animals today with an amazing instinct for hibernation. It would be no difficulty for Him to miraculously impart a unique instinct for these particular animals.
Fun Fact: The flood is given more words in Scripture than Creation or the Fall.
The sons of God married any daughters they chose. The Lord said His Spirit will not contend with (be with) man forever for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were the heroes of old, men of renown and were on earth during this time when the sons of God were as well.
God saw how men’s hearts had become only evil and He was filled with pain. God said he would wipe mankind from the face of the earth for He is grieved (regretted) He created them. Except for Noah who was a righteous man and walked with God. Noah had 3 sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The earth was corrupt and the people were violent.
God tells Noah He is going to destroy the world, and he needs to build an ark. God enters a covenant with Noah. He tells Noah he will need to bring in two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive and every kind of food for him and for the animals.
Noah did everything God commanded.
Summary of Genesis 7:
God tells Noah to enter the ark with the animals for in seven days He will send rain for 40 days and nights. Noah obeys. Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened. All the animals came to him. Then the Lord shut them in and the waters came. Everything perished. After the rain stopped, the earth remained flooded for 150 days.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 3: Genesis 6-7
7) Man’s wickedness was great, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil. The Lord was grieved that he had made man, and his heart was filled with pain. God decides to wipe his entire creation out because He is so grieved He made them.
8 ) Noah was righteous, blameless among the people, and he walked faithfully with God.
9a) Noah obeyed every command given to him from God without question. He 100% trusted God when He spoke to him although the request probably seemed outlandish at the time.
b) Personal Question. My answer: Too many things to list! Serving God unquestionably is challenging, even in the little things, let alone the big things.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 3: Genesis 6-7
I love the story of Noah. Here’s a guy of faith who is told to build a big boat and save his entire family by God. How awesome and scary is that! Yet, he does it without fail, without question, showing us what a walk with God truly is.
Last go around in the study of Genesis, we were asked who the sons of God and the daughters of men were. Nehilim is explained HERE
We were also asked what we do to cause God grief and have we found favor in God’s eyes.
God could just have snapped His fingers, and Noah and his family could have been saved. Instead, He had Noah build an ark. God does the same thing to us. He doesn’t wave His magic wand and make our problems go away, but He does provide a way out and through that is most likely not our way.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 3: Genesis 6-7
Genesis 6:
Who Were the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men?
Many have believed the sons of God were those from the line of Seth, and the daughters of men were from the line of Cain, and this describes an intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly, something God specifically prohibits (Deuteronomy 7:1-4, 2 Corinthians 6:14).
Some believe that sons of God are either demons (angels in rebellion against God) or uniquely demon-possessed men, and the daughters of men are human women.
The phrase sons of God clearly refers to angelic creatures when it is used the three other times in the Old Testament (Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7). The translators of the Septuagint translated sons of God as angels. Those ancient translators clearly thought sons of God referred to angelic beings, not to people descended from Seth.
Jude 6 tells us of the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation. Jude goes on (Jude 7) to tell us they sinned in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh. Here in Genesis 6, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, there was an unnatural sexual union. Jude 6 also makes it clear what God did with these wicked angels. They are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day for not keeping their proper place. Their sinful pursuit of freedom has put them in bondage.
In Matthew 22:30, we see where Jesus said angels neither marry nor are given in marriage; but Jesus never said angels were sexless, and He was also speaking about faithful angelic beings (angels of God in heaven), not rebellious ones.
In sum, no one knows exactly who the sons of God and the daughters of men are referring to.
Satan could have sent his angels to intermarry in an effort to ensure the promised seed of Jesus was never born. And Satan almost succeeded. The race was so polluted that God found it necessary to start again with Noah and his sons, and to imprison the demons that did this so they could never do this again.
Take away from the flood: there is a point of sin where God will say “enough is enough.” Turn to God now because no other days are promised to us.
God said He would flood the earth 120 years before He did. Perhaps He is hoping some will turn to Him.
Giants on earth refers to the unnatural offspring of the union between the sons of God and the daughters of men, though there were people of unusual size on the earth both before and after the flood (and also afterward). These ones before the flood were unique because of the demonic element of their parentage. They were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Jesus said, as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:37). In other words, the conditions of the world before the coming of Jesus will be like the conditions of the world before the flood:
Widespread corruption and violence (Genesis 6:11).
Even though God knew He would destroy mankind, He still felt grieved.
Noah
Noah found grace; he did not earn it. Noah had the righteousness that is of faith because as soon as the floodwaters had dried up and he left the ark, he offered sacrifices (Genesis 8:20). Noah’s three sons will figure into the account in a significant way. God will use them as a foundation for the rest of the human race.
Since the fall in Genesis 3, every human being has a death sentence. The timing and method of that death are completely in the hands of God.
Instead of wiping out the entire race, God preserved a remnant.
The Ark
The ark was as long as a 30-story building is high (about 450 feet or 150 meters)
75 feet (25 meters) wide
45 feet (15 meters) high.
The ark is meant to float, like a barge, not sail.
Was the shape of a shoebox, was plenty large enough (about the size of the Titanic)
Had a cubit-wide opening (18 inches, one-half meter) all the way around the top.
It was not until 1858 that a boat bigger than the ark was built. The ark was certainly big enough to do the job. If the ark carried two of every family of animals, there were around 700 pairs of animals; but if the ark carried two of every species of animals, there were around 35,000 pairs of animals.
The average size of a land animal is smaller than a sheep. The ark could carry 136,560 sheep in half of its capacity, leaving plenty of room for people, food, water, and whatever other provisions were needed.
Noah was not told why he was making this ark in the beginning; just to make it.
Throughout history, many people have reported seeing the ark and/or finding the ark. The pitch worked to waterproof the wood. God told Noah to cover it with pitch inside and outside, which makes it possible that the ark was preserved for a long time. It is possible God still has a purpose for the ark, to use it to remind the world of a past judgment shortly before a future judgment.
Fun Fact: Because of this mention of pitch (a petroleum product) in what most people think is the Middle East, it is said that John D. Rockefeller looked for (and found) oil in that region based on this verse.
Despite the dramatic judgment coming, God will make a covenant with Noah, and he and his family will be saved. God will also use Noah to save a remnant of each animal so the earth could be populated with people and animals after the flood.
The Bible presents Noah as a great hero of God. He was an outstanding example of righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), and Noah condemned the world by offering salvation in the ark that the whole world rejected (Hebrews 11:7).
Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), yet in his 120-year ministry, it seems that no one was saved.
Genesis 7:
God was in the ark and would be with Noah in the ark, so He called Noah to come into the ark with Him.
“Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, ‘Go into the ark,’ but ‘Come,”
In Genesis 6:20 God said the animals would come to Noah by migration.
Noah, the animals, and his family had to wait in the ark seven days for the rain to come. They had never seen rain up to this time. This was a real test of faith – to wait a week after more than 100 years of preparation.
The heavens containing the great waters that were above the firmament (Genesis 1:7) opened up. These waters formed the huge so-called blanket of water in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere since creation. Waters came up from under the earth, too.
The Number 40 in the Bible
Here we see the first use of the number 40 in the Bible. It has become associated with testing and purification, especially before entering into something new and significant.
Note that God shuts the door. God has the final say in judgement. God shuts people out.
God kept the door open until the last possible minute, but there came a time when the door had to shut. Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
88% describe a favored family.
70% attribute survival to a boat.
95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
67% record that animals are also saved.
57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
The water from the flood is collected in oceans today.
The Bible says that only the animals that had the breath of the spirit of life. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
God may have put some or many of these animals into a period of hibernation for this period, meaning that less food, space, and supervision was be needed.
God provides many animals today with an amazing instinct for hibernation. It would be no difficulty for Him to miraculously impart a unique instinct for these particular animals.
A written account of Adam’s line. God created man (Adam) in His likeness. Then Adam had a son, Seth, in his likeness instead of God’s since Adam had ushered sin into this world. Seth had Enosh. Enosh had Kenan. Kenan had Mahalalel. Mahalalel had Jared. Jared had Enoch. Enoch had Methuselah. Methuselah had Lamech. Lamech had Noah. Noah had Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Enoch walked with God so he did not die we are told.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 2: Genesis 5
3) Everyone lived, had kids, and then died. This set the pattern for all of mankind.
John 3:6-8: You must be born again in the Spirit
John 8:24: If you don’t believe in Jesus, you will die in your sins
Romans 5:14: Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. Adam was the pattern of the one to come.
Romans 6:23: The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus
4) Enoch was the only one who didn’t die. He was just taken by God. Hebrews tells us that “without faith, it’s impossible to please God” and to be with God, he has to please him. So Enoch was a man of faith. Jude tells us he was the seventh from Adam. Because his prophesy is recorded, one could infer that Enoch was special as being of faith and many others were wicked, meaning God’s judgement (the flood) was coming soon.
5a) To follow God’s commands in the Bible; to put God first in all that you do. To walk in friendship, love, and companionship.
b) Personal Question. My answer: Faithful. Not the best, most certainly. Sometimes He’s first; other times, He’s not.
6) Personal Question. My answer: It’s normal. If you are a believer, there is nothing scary about death.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 2: Genesis 5
Here’s the first of the many lists of tracing Jesus’ descendents from Adam that are in the Bible. Dull reading, but super important.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 2: Genesis 5
Bible scholars note that this is probably the end of Adam’s account and the rest of the book of Genesis is Moses’ writings. Adam wrote down the account of Creation, presumably given to him by God. From Genesis 2:4 to here is Adam’s writings.
Mankind is the name God gave humanity. There is nothing sexist in this.
Time Frame
If no one was left out, this tells us that it was between 4,000 and 5,000 years from the Creation of Adam and Eve to Jesus, which varies significantly with history. Many people believe humans did live that long pre-flood due to the fact mankind was “new” with no frailities yet and that a blanket of water vapor still surrounded the earth (Genesis 1:6-8).
If Adam had a lot of kids, there very well could have been one million people on the earth by the time he died, putting billions on earth by the time of the flood.
Every person has been born in Adam’s image and likeness except Jesus.
Enoch began to walk with God in a special way after the birth of Methuselah. The name Methuselah means, when he is dead, it shall come. Enoch had a special awareness from God that judgment was coming, and this was one of the things that got him closer in his walk with God.
Jude 14 also tells us Enoch was a prophet and that he could see the second coming of Jesus.
Noah was born only 14 years after the death of Seth, Adam’s son (Genesis 5:7-8). Seth died in year 1042 from creation and Noah was born in year 1056 from creation, if the genealogies are consecutive and without gaps.
Noah could have known and spoken with Adam’s grandson, Enosh, and his other grandchildren. Since Adam and Eve had sons and daughters after Cain, Abel, and Seth (Genesis 5:3-4), it is possible that Noah spoke with one of the unnamed sons or daughters of Adam and Eve.
In Genesis 5 we see that all these men died. They were all under sin and all subject to death. Some of them were great men, but none of them was the deliverer God had promised.
